Motivation is a beautiful thing.

Sometimes the easiest things are the most effective.  These 10 tips for motivating your employees may seem overly simple at first glance; perhaps you’ll say, “Of course!  Who doesn’t know that?” But these are the sort of tips that we often forget to put into practice.  Making yourself mindful of them [...]]]>

Motivation is a beautiful thing.

Sometimes the easiest things are the most effective.  These 10 tips for motivating your employees may seem overly simple at first glance; perhaps you’ll say, “Of course!  Who doesn’t know that?” But these are the sort of tips that we often forget to put into practice.  Making yourself mindful of them will give you more productive – and happier – employees!

1.  Smile 

2.  Find reason to compliment even the most difficult employees.  Make it sincere, even if it’s just “Hey, dig those shoes.”

3.  Do a favor.  I’m not talking about waxing the secretary’s Prius.  I’m talking the simple stuff:  Buy her a cappuccino; fix that computer glitch she’s been bugging you about; clip a funny cartoon you think she’d like.

4.  Say thanks.

5.  Admit a mistake.

6. Bring in doughnuts.  Or a fruit basket.  (You’d be surprised at how fast a fruit basket will empty out!  It doesn’t have to be frosted to be devoured.)

7.  Listen.

8.  Ask for input.  Nothing makes an employee feel more valued than to have a boss, a supervisor, a manager ask for their opinion or input on something!

9.  Openly recognize talent.

10.  Laugh.

At first it looks simple; but be aware of just one or two of these tasks throughout the rest of today, and you’ll find some of them might be harder to implement than you thought!  That’s alright.  The payoff for everyone is great.  In fact, we could rename this post “10 Simple Tips for Motivating Yourself” and read it again. The list is just as effective.  Nothing is a more powerful self-motivator than motivating others!

A Misplaced Worker is an Unmotivated Worker

What if Shaun White never became a snowboarder?  What if, instead, his parents told him, “Kid, enough with the snowboarding already.  Crack into those books and aim for a respectable job.  That sport’s going nowhere anyway.”  Jump to Shaun’s adulthood:  He sits behind a desk pushing numbers as an [...]]]>

What if Shaun White never became a snowboarder?  What if, instead, his parents told him, “Kid, enough with the snowboarding already.  Crack into those books and aim for a respectable job.  That sport’s going nowhere anyway.”  Jump to Shaun’s adulthood:  He sits behind a desk pushing numbers as an accountant.  Think he’d be any good at it?  Even if he performed alright, his heart certainly wouldn’t be in it.  In much the same way, our employees can be seriously underperforming if they are misplaced.  So how do you most effectively go about motivating your employees?  One of the best ways is to make sure their job description best matches their talents.

That’s not to say we tell them to trade in their keyboard for a snowboard, building them a halfpipe in the parking lot.  But if an employee seems less than motivated, even disgruntled, one area to look at is their day-to-day activities.  An employee turning in subpar work may simply be misplaced.  In smaller companies it’s easier to get to know an employee on a one-on-one basis than it is in larger companies, but it’s never impossible to learn the likes and dislikes of one’s workstaff.  Getting to know more about the personal lives of those who make your company operate is a great way to figure out where they might better be placed, or what new responsibilities may be added to their workday that would motivate them.

Take, for instance, Sandy.  A true story, Sandy worked at a factory.  She was young and wasn’t planning on making the factory her lifelong job and the bosses knew that.  She was placed on a machine producing parts, and the work environment was quite repetitive.  Others did very well in that position, but Sandy got squirrelly, wandered around and talked instead of working, and consistently produced bad parts.  Other employees complained that she wasn’t holding up to the task, and it wasn’t making for a very pretty work environment.  She probably would have gotten herself fired, but her supervisor saw it for what it was – Sandy was bored to tears.  She needed movement and mental activity that would change from day to day.  Her supervisor moved her to a different position where she would get what it took to make her a top performer in the company.  True, she did leave a couple of years later, but for the years she worked there she was happy and a top producer.  

As with the case of Sandy, misplaced workers can act out and even disrupt others; but like the image of Shaun White at the accountant’s desk, being misplaced simply means poor performance.  Reevaluating a worker’s job description may give you more than a happy, motivated worker – it may just lead to an Olympic performer who has the potential to take your company to Gold-medal status!